View source for The Mechanics and Control of Robotic Locomotion with Applications to Aquatic Vehicles

{{HTDB paper
| authors = Scott D. Kelly
| title = The Mechanics and Control of Robotic Locomotion with Applications to Aquatic Vehicles
| source = PhD Dissertation, Caltech, June 1998
| year = 
| type =  Thesis
| funding = NSF
| url = http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~murray/preprints/sdk98-phd.pdf
| abstract = 
This work illuminates a theory of locomotion rooted in geometric
   mechanics and nonlinear control. We regard the internal configuration
   of a deformable body, together with its position and orientation in
   ambient space, as a point in a trivial principal fiber bundle over the
   manifold of body deformations. We obtain connections on such bundles
   which describe the nonholonomic constraints, conservation laws, and
   force balances to which certain propulsors are subject, and construct
   and analyze control-affine normal forms for different classes of
   systems. We examine the applicability of results involving geometric
   phases to the practical computation of trajectories for systems
   described by single connections. We propose a model for planar
   carangiform swimming based on reduced Euler-Lagrange equations for the
   interaction of a rigid body and an incompressible fluid, accounting
   for the generation of thrust due to vortex shedding through controlled
   coupling terms. We investigate the correct form of this coupling
   experimentally with a robotic propulsor, comparing its observed
behavior with that predicted numerically.
| flags = 
| tag = sdk98-phd
| id = 1998
}}